Ralph Bunche Biography

Born: August 7, 1904
Detroit, Michigan
Died: December 9, 1971
New York, New York
African American diplomat and professor

Ralph Bunche was the highest American official in the United Nations. In
1950 he became the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize for
his work on the negotiations that led to a truce in the First Arab-Israeli
War (1948–49).

Childhood and early career

Ralph Johnson Bunche was born in Detroit, Michigan, on August 7, 1904.
(His given last name was Bunch, but as a teenager he added the
"e" because he thought it looked better.) Bunche's
father was a barber, and his parents were very poor. In time they also
became very ill and both died when he was thirteen years old. After his
parents' deaths Bunche and his young sister went to live with his
maternal grandmother in Los Angeles. While going to school he helped
support the family by working as a janitor, a carpet-layer, and a
seaman. His grandmother's strong will and her wisdom had a
lasting influence on him.

Bunche attended the University of California at Los Angeles on
scholarships and graduated in 1927. He earned a master's degree
at Harvard University in 1928 and a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree
in government and international relations at Harvard in 1934.

In 1928 Bunche began teaching in the Department of Political Science at
Howard University. He was department chairman from 1937 to 1942. In 1930
he married Ruth Harris, one of his students. The couple had three
children. In 1950 he was appointed to the faculty of Harvard University,
but after two leaves of absence he resigned in 1952, without having
taught there.

Ralph Bunche.
Reproduced by permission of

Archive Photos, Inc.

United Nations

Bunche was an expert on colonialism. The term colonialism refers to a
nation's possession or control over a colony. (For example, both
the United States and Nigeria were once colonies ruled by Great
Britain.) During World War II (1939–45), Bunche worked in the
U.S. Office of Strategic Services as an expert on African and Far
Eastern affairs. In 1944 he moved to the U.S. State Department. From
1944 to 1946 Bunche was active as an expert on trusteeship in the
planning and establishment of the United Nations (UN). (Trusteeship is
the overseeing of a colony or territory by a country or countries given
the
authority to do so by the UN.) In 1947 Bunche was asked to join the UN
Secretariat by the UN's Secretary General, Trygve Lie
(1896–1968). Bunche served as director of the Trusteeship
Division.

At the UN Bunche was given some difficult assignments. In 1947 he was a
member of the UN Special Committee on Palestine that recommended
Palestine's division into Jewish and Arab states. The Arabs
refused to accept the UN plan. This led to the first Arab-Israeli War.
When the UN's chief negotiator in that conflict was assassinated
in 1948, Bunche took his place. From January to June 1949 he led the
difficult negotiations between Arab and Israeli groups on the Greek
island of Rhodes. The negotiations eventually led to an agreement to end
the fighting. Both sides praised his achievement, and in 1950 he was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

From 1955 to 1971 Bunche held important positions at the UN. He directed
UN peacekeeping operations in the Suez area of the Middle East (1956),
in the Congo (1960), and on the island of Cyprus (1964). He was also
responsible for the UN's program involving the peaceful uses of
atomic energy. In June 1971 he retired while suffering from a fatal
illness.

Concern with race relations

Bunche was the grandson of a slave. His personal experience of prejudice
(making judgments about a person solely based on his or her race) and
his concern about race relations led him to become a teacher and an
expert in the problems of colonialism. In 1936 he was codirector of the
Institute of Race Relations at Swarthmore College. From 1938 to 1940 he
assisted the Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal (1898–1987) in his
investigation of racial problems in the United States. Their research
led to Myrdal's book
An American Dilemma.

For twenty-two years Bunche was a member of the board of directors of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
In 1965 he participated in marches in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. Led
by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968), the marches protested
racial discrimination.

Bunche received many honorary degrees and awards. President John F.
Kennedy (1917–1963) presented him with the Medal of Freedom in
1963. Bunche died in New York City on December 9, 1971.

For More Information

Henry, Charles P.
Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other?
New York: New York University Press, 1999.